Michael Smith appears in a mugshot from June 2023. (Portsmouth Police Department)
An Ohio man has been charged in connection with his mother's death – after her body was discovered in a particularly gruesome state.
Michael Smith, 61, of New Boston, stands accused of murder for the June killing of his mother, Carol Sue Swymn, 85, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.
The circumstances leading up to the discovery of the woman's body involved an apparent suicide attempt by her son, police said.
On June 10, PPD officers were called to the Ohio River because a man had jumped off the Grant Bridge – a cable-stayed bridge that traverses U.S. Route 23 between Portsmouth, Ohio, and South Portsmouth, Kentucky, a press release said. By the time law enforcement arrived, the man in question was seen "out of the water and on the riverbank," according to the police department.
"The male was injured and stated to officers that he wanted to kill himself," the press release says. "The male was transported to [Southern Ohio Medical Center] by Portsmouth Fire/EMS."
Later, he was transported to Grant Medical Center in Columbus to deal with his injuries from the fall into the river.
In the hospital, the man, later identified as Smith, "made statements indicating that his mother was at Kroger's, in a silver Cadillac, and that she was in bad shape needing an ambulance," police allege.
Patrol officers then made their way to a Kroger grocery store location in Portsmouth. There, Swymm was found "stuffed in the front floor board of the Cadillac." The defendant's mother was still alive when she was discovered, police said, and "injured from an apparent assault."
Firefighters and EMS transported Swymm to a landing zone and then she was taken, by helicopter, to Cabell Huntington Hospital. There, she succumbed to her injuries at around 7:30 p.m. the next day.
No motive for the son's alleged matricide has been floated by law enforcement as of this writing.
According to police, state investigators arrived to assist Portsmouth police detectives at the crime scene as well as Swymm's apartment on Millbrook Avenue in New Boston. An investigation determined Smith had "severely assaulted his mother," police said, and that Swymm "ultimately died from the injuries she sustained in the assault."
A warrant for the defendant was issued on June 14 – where he was arrested at the second hospital after completing his treatment.
Smith was initially detained in the Franklin County Jail pending an extradition hearing so he can be taken back to Scioto County. A review of jail records by Law&Crime showed that Smith was no longer being held in Franklin County as of Friday.
Law&Crime reached out Portsmouth police for additional details and comment on this case but no response was immediately forthcoming.